The Festival of Media Global Awards' highly-anticipated shortlist for 2014 is more global than ever before, with the top brands on this year's list coming from the US, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden, and India.

SINGAPORE: The hotly anticipated Spikes Asia Awards Ceremony has taken place at the Grand Theatre, Marina Bay Sands. Over 1,000 delegates attended to be the first to hear this year's winners and celebrate the best of creativity in communications from across Asia Pacific.

BANGALORE, INDIA / CAPE TOWN, SA: ABIBA Systems, a leading Indian telecom analytics solution provider, has announced its participation in the Next Generation Telecom Summit Africa taking place in South Africa.

NEW YORK, US: The Midas Awards, for the World's Best Financial Advertising, announced the award winners for the 2012 competition. This year's Midas Grand Jury awarded one Grand Midas, 26 Gold Ingots, 46 Silver Ingots, and 63 Finalists. The 2012 Midas Awards competition received entries from 28 countries and is reputed to be the only international competition that recognises excellence in financial services communications on a global scale.

PARIS, FRANCE / DARMSTADT, GERMANY: I-Next of India has been designated the 2012 World Young Reader Newspaper of the Year in the annual Young Reader Prize competition from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), which awarded 21 prizes to newspapers and a printing plant that have found innovative ways to attract young people to the news.

NEW YORK, US: The 55th New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards, announced this year's winning entries at the 2012 awards ceremony on Tuesday, 17 April at the annual NAB Show in Las Vegas. Geoffrey Mason, senior production specialist for ESPN, was awarded the NYF Television & Film Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.

CANNES, FRANCE: The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, taking place from 17-23 June, has announced the members of a further four juries: Creative Effectiveness, Design, Film, and PR Lions. South Africa is represented on the Design jury (Shelley-Ann Atkinson, Grid Worldwide Branding & Design) and on the Film jury (Catherine Ireland, Amplified).

KIEV, UKRAINE / PARIS, FRANCE / DARMSTADT, GERMANY: The speaker line-up for the 64th World Newspaper Congress and 19th World Editors Forum could hardly be more international, with speakers from North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and South America on the podium when the global summit meetings of the world's press is held in Kiev, Ukraine, next September. Among the speakers is Trevor Ncube, deputy executive chairman, Mail & Guardian, South Africa.

CHENNAI, INDIA: WAN-IFRA and the Society for News Design (SND) have joined hands to organise the first ever News Design Conference in South Asia. The event will be held at New Delhi from 23-24 January 2012.

LONDON, UK: Creatives and agencies hopeful of winning a Yellow or Black Pencil this year are being reminded that they only have two weeks left to enter the annual D&AD Awards. Entries close on 1 February 2012.

NEW DELHI, INDIA: WAN-IFRA and the Society for News Design (SND) has joined hands to organise the first ever "News Design Conference" in South Asia. The event will be held at New Delhi from 23-24 January 2012.

SINGAPORE: A total of 3647 entries from 17 countries will be competing at this year's Spikes Asia Festival, which kicks off this forthcoming Sunday in Singapore, an overall increase of 19% versus last year, with growth in most categories.

NEW YORK, US: The 4A's has announced the shortlist for the Jay Chiat Awards for Strategic Excellence, claimed to be the first global advertising awards to recognise brilliant strategic thinking. Submissions in 10 categories were received from Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The speaker programme for the 38th FIPP World Magazine Congress in New Delhi, India, already boasts some of the biggest names in international magazine publishing, so take advantage of the early bird rates and book your place now.

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The FIPP World Magazine Congress is reputedly the largest magazine event in the world with the highest profile of any such event. Virtually all delegates are key decision-makers in publishing and media businesses across the globe. With the Congress taking place in New Delhi, India, for the first time, more than 1000 high-level international executives are expected to attend.

SAN FRANCISCO, US: The Bees Awards, claimed to be the first international social media marketing awards for communication professionals, has announced today, Monday, 24 January 2011, its 2011 jury panel members, which include Rob Hill, group head of strategy, Ogilvy Cape Town. The event will once again award winners in more than 23 specialised categories, including eight new categories in the fast-paced social media marketing world.

SHANGHAI, CHINA: The Asian Marketing Effectiveness Festival, a joint venture between Haymarket and the International Advertising Festival, will take place 12 and 13 May at the Pudong Shangri-La hotel in Shanghai, China.

HANGZHOU, CHINA: The 2nd Asia-Pacific Digital Magazine Conference, hosted by FIPP and CPA (China Periodicals Association) will take place on 14-15 October 2010 at the InterContinental Conference Centre, Hangzhou, China and the early bird registration discount has been extended to 1 September 2010.